SINGAPORE, Feb 24 — The Ministry of Health (MOH) today said that Singapore has received its first shipment of China’s Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine yesterday.

In a press release, MOH said that the Sinovac vaccine has yet to be authorised for use in Singapore by the Health Sciences Authority (HSA).

MOH said that Sinovac has started submitting initial data, and HSA is awaiting the company’s submission of all the necessary information in order to carry out a "thorough scientific assessment of the manufacturing process, safety and efficacy of the vaccine under the Pandemic Special Access Route”.

The Pandemic Special Access Route refers to an interim authorisation that "enables regulatory agilities in responding to an emergency that may pose serious threats to the public, such as in the situation of a pandemic”, according to the HSA website.

Separately, MOH said that Singapore received another shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine today.

"We will continue to monitor our supplies closely to meet our target of vaccinating all Singaporeans and long-term residents in Singapore by (the) end of 2021,” it said.

Last Wednesday, Singapore received its first shipment of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine which arrived ahead of its expected delivery next month.

The Moderna vaccine was granted interim authorisation for use here earlier in February. — TODAY